UGCC activist transfers UOC temples to OCU

Believer of the UGCC Maria Filipchuk is talking to representatives of the OCU in the Chernovtsy Regional State Administration. Photo: Pravblog YouTube Channel

The main initiator of the illegal re-registration of the UOC communities into the OCU in Chernovtsy region is the believer of the UGCC Maria Filipchuk. A video of her speech within the walls of the Chernovtsy Regional State Administration was published on August 15 on the Pravblog YouTube channel.

According to Pravblog, Maria Filipchuk is an associate of Maxim Burbak, head of the Popular Front faction in the previous convocation of the Ukrainian Parliament.

According to the authors of Pravblog, Filipchuk’s speech can be regarded as “preparing the ground for the future merger of the UGCC and the OCU into a single entity”, since, in her opinion, the Greek Catholics are no different from the Orthodox.

It is worth noting that the statement of Maria Filipchuk on the identical nature of the Greek Catholics and the Orthodox was greeted with applause by the representatives of the OCU.

She is convinced that “the OCU is recognized by the whole world”, while “Greek Catholics and Orthodox Christians are one branch of the Church of Vladimir the Great”.

According to her, the Ukrainians adopted the union in 1654 because "it so happened that the Poles came and seized our land, but the Ukrainians wanted to preserve their Byzantine traditions, therefore, in order not to offend the authorities the name ‘Greek Catholics’ arose."

At the same time, Filipchuk claims that “the Moscow church came to Bukovina in 1940 and we know what kind of policy Stalin pursued regarding everything Ukrainian. Therefore, I am with you.”

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that in Bukovina activists of the OCU came to the head of the Chernovtsy Regional State Administration and demanded that the UOC communities be re-registered in favor of a new church structure in 5 minutes.

In addition, the head of the Greek Catholics, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, called the OCU God's gift on the road to "complete unity" and also stated that "our common goal is the creation of a unified Kiev Patriarchate".

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